Shiur provided courtesy of Naaleh.com

Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein

When someone travels, he often keeps a log or a journal of all the places he has visited. For him, the record serves as a reminder of the pleasant experiences or difficult lessons he learned on the journey. But for anyone who has not been on the journey with him, the log is irrelevant and even boring. Yet the Torah in Parshat Masei lists every one of the forty two stops where Bnei Yisroel encamped on their journeys from Mitzrayim to the Promised Land by which they went forth from Egypt. The Torah gives them even more emphasis by naming each stop both when they first encamped there and when they left. Why is this information so relevant to the lives of all future generations that Hashem gave it so much "shelf space" in the Holy Torah? Further, within the same verse, the Torah reverses its terminology. "Moshe wrote motzoaihem lemasaihem/goings forth according to their journeys... and these were masaihem lemotzoaihem/their journeys according to their goings forth."

The Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l asks additional questions. Although only the first stop to Sukkot was directly out of Egypt, the Torah lists the journeys, in the plural, all forty-two encampments, as exiting Egypt. To this, the Lubavitcher Rebbe answers that each stage brought a new sense of freedom, a broader sense of the spiritual liberation from Egypt. As such, each encampment was truly exiting Egypt in the larger context.

Rav Pam zt”l, citing the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh zt”l, notes that Hashem told Moshe to keep this log of their travels, suggesting that this was how all of Bnei Yisroel, throughout the generations, would be reminded of Hashem's kindness. This is a message for all of us, for each family. Indeed each individual should keep a journal of gratitude to Hashem for every chessed Hashem has granted him along each step of the journey of his life.

Perhaps telling Moshe to keep this record was not only so that we would remember Hashem's chessed, but also to remind Hashem of our faith in Him each leg of the journey. As the Prophet Yirmiyahu states, Hashem remember the chesed [we did for Him] in our youth, at the infancy of our nationhood, how we followed Him into the wilderness, into a land without vegetation. It was this same faith that sustained us throughout the forty years in the desert, in spite of the challenges we faced, through which we merited reaching the end of the journey and inheriting Eretz Yisroel, writes Rabbi Bernstein, citing the Sforno zt”l. Further, now referencing the Malbim zt”l, Rabbi Bernstein notes that a recurring theme throughout the forty years was the inability of the people to completely divorce themselves from Mitzrayim. Each leg of the journey was necessary in the process of making the separation from Egypt. complete.

It is within this context that Rabbi Miller zt”l cites Rav Zadok HaCohen zt”l as saying that symbolically Pharaoh represents the yetzer horo, and Bnei Yisroel could not sever themselves completely from the negative influences of Mitzrayim. These forty-two stops in the desert also represent forty-two stages in our lives, writes the Nesivot Shalom referencing the Baal Shem Tov zt”l. We start in the narrow confines, the meitzorim, of the womb, and travel through life, encountering all our challenges, until we reach our final resting place.

The Novominsker Rav zt”l provides us with a more esoteric interpretation of these journeys that are later reflected in the wanderings of Bnei Yisroel throughout our history. Everything and every place in the world contains some sparks of sanctity. Bnei Yisroel's mission is to find these holy sparks and extract them from their impure environments. When that job in a particular place is complete, when all those holy sparks have been retrieved, Bnei Yisroel moves on. It began in Mitzrayim. We need not return there because our ancestors have already collected those divine sparks. In Babylon. the holy sparks took root as our Sages wrote and redacted the Babylonian Talmud. When that job was complete, Bnei Yisroel moved on. Each country in which we settled was a repository for hidden holy sparks. As we retrieved them, we moved, or were forced to move on.

The Novominsker Rav relates the parting of Rav Nachum Perlow from his father in law, the Sokolover Rebbe as he left Poland for America. T he Sokolover Rebbe told Rabbi Perlow of the vision of his own grandfather, the Kotzker Rebbe, "I see the Torah wandering! It left Eretz Yisroel to go to Bavel... to Spain... to Germany... Poland. I see the Torah wandering on -- to America."

That explains why the Torah precedes their journeys, masaihem, to motzaeihem, for their purpose was to take out the spiritual sparks through their journeying to these places. This is also the journey of our lives, to extract the spiritual essence intermixed with the impurities within each of us at each stage of our lives. We are charged with elevating ourselves to the unadulterated pure spirituality of Adam before the sin, before the lines between good and evil became blurred. Today's low begins where yesterday's high left us, ready to begin a new ascent.

We all find ourselves in constricted spaces, in meitzarim, in difficult situations, during different phases of our lives, beginning from the embryonic stage and continuing to challenges in our lifetimes. As we pass each stage, we enter a new, expansive phase of life. We are not meant to stand still as we reach any phase; we are meant to continue traveling, striving and never despairing, for the goal is near, That is why this Parshah is always read during the three weeks of mourning for the destruction of the Beit Hamikdosh. But destruction is often a necessary precursor to rebuilding better and stronger. Our goal is to see history through the eyes of God, not through our limited, blurred vision. In each phase, we are meant to recognize Hashem's goodness so that we can change the darkness of exile into hope and redemption, teaches the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Every generation goes through this process, writes the Tosher Rebbe zt”l. It is reenacted every year in the three weeks, twenty one days and twenty one nights, totaling forty-two. We move forward, from one encampment to the next.

The Torah writes, "These are the journeys of Bnei Yisroel" in the present. This refers not only to the national journeys of Bnei Yisroel, but also to our individual journeys, writes the Netivot Shalom, citing the Ariz"l. Each of us has our own sparks to pick up as we struggle to achieve our own unique purpose, as we move from where we came from to our final destination.

How can we move forward on our personal journey? The Netivot Shalom offers the dual paths represented by the verse in Tehillim, "Turn from evil and do good..." The Netivot Shalom suggests you may begin with either. You may try first uprooting your negative tendencies and then work on your positive attributes, motzi first that will lead to your destination of the positive masa. Alternately, by focusing on doing good, you will be leaving no room for evil and forcing it out. As an example, Rebbetzin Smiles suggests that if you fully immerse yourself in the sanctity of the Shabbat experience, it will impact the rest of the week. You will automatically, internalize that Hashem controls the world, that Hashem is all good and peace, and any jealousy toward others will dissipate. The key here is to keep moving. Sometimes that will mean turning away from the negative, while at other times it will mean embracing the good.

The names of these forty-two stops hint at various character traits, writes Rabbi Pliskin. For example, Bnei Yisroel's fifth encampment was in Eilim, meaning violence, a trait they need to uproot, along with the trait of taavah, desire, which, if not controlled, leads to the grave, the kever.

Returning to the two words that bracket each leg of the journey, Rabbi Bernstein cites Rabbi Yehudah Aszod zt”l in explaining that maseihem refers to the journeys, while motzaeihem refers to the experiences; for Bnei Yisroel to have the experiences that promote growth, Hashem arranged these particular journeys. So too, do the journeys of our lives give us the experiences from which we grow. Just as Hashem arranged the journeys through the desert, so must we understand that our journeys in life are also not random, but arranged by Hashem. Whether we "happened" to be at a particular place at an unusual time and met our bashert, or the item we picked up and returned resulted in our getting a job, whether a phone call delayed our departure and prevented us from being involved in a major accident as it occurred, we must remember that Hashem coordinated it all.

In Mei Hada'as, Rabbi Humonier zt”l recounts the story of Rabbi Elya Meir Bloch zt”l who was compelled to leave Poland and come to America. He considered this a terrible tragedy. After the Holocaust when he was a lone survivor of his town and his family, he founded the Telse Yeshiva in Cleveland, and realized in hindsight that his flight to America was for the purpose of establishing this bastion of Torah in America. Rabbi Bloch traveled, encamped, and built anew.

Bnei Yisroel traveled to conquer new ground, new spiritual growth, and then encamped and rested to enable them to internalize and absorb the new lessons, writes the Netivot Shalom. The traveling represented the challenge and the victory, while the encampment represents the resting, the time necessary to internalize the experience and become reinvigorated. Just as when climbing a steep hill one must take moments to pause and reflect on how far we've come before we continue our climb, so must we also take the time to internalize the victory over each challenge from the yetzer horo so that the new growth can take root and give us the strength to continue ascending. Symbolically, the challenging darkness of the Three Weeks precedes and prepares us for the light of the Yomim Noraim as the night always precedes the day.

Not all the encampments were successful, reminds us Rabbi Doniel Ochion. What we need to realize is that challenge and failure are also part of life. A failure often helps us to rise higher, As the Prophet Michah writes, "It is through my falling that I rise, " and as the wise King Solomon teaches, "The righteous may fall seven times, but they rise [each time]." As Rabbi Bender explains, the tzadik rises not despite falling, but through his falling, for it is human to struggle with the yetzer horo; what makes us whole and improved is triumphing over the yetzer horo.

Rebbetzin Yemima Mizrachi cites the words of the Aish Kodesh, written in the darkness of the Holocaust. The Aish Kodesh wrote that by writing the order of motzaeihem lemasaihem, Moshe was giving us hope that even in the darkest parts of the journey there is always a way out, an exit, a destination that will be reached. Know where you are coming from, from the Torah, and that knowledge will be the light that will guide you to your destination.

Interestingly, each column of a Sefer Torah contains forty-two lines, corresponding to the forty-two journeys of Bnei Yisroel in the desert, writes Rabbi Bernstein citing the Tur in the name of Rabbi Yehudah of Barcelona. Through this connection, we are encouraged, as we see that life and history can be navigated through a reliance on Torah as our guide. As such, the journey recorded in the Torah is an allusion to the final redemption, writes Rabbi Schlesinger citing Rabenu Bechaya zt”l, for to reach that goal, we take many journeys, survive many challenges, and Hashem sustains us until we will reach that final destination in Eretz Yisroel. This is the message we need to focus on as we observe the Three Weeks. We must remember that in spite of the failures, the challenges, the difficulties, Hashem sustains us. There will be great light and great joy at the end of this dark tunnel.